Two Third Period Goals Lead Maine Past Bears, 2-1

PORTLAND, ME - The Brown men's ice hockey team (2-8-1) held onto a 1-0 lead over 10th-ranked Maine (10-5-0) for 30:04, but the Black Bears scored two third period goals with under 9:00 left in the game to earn a 2-1 victory over the Bears. With the loss, Brown is now winless in its past seven games, earning its last victory on November 12th against St. Lawrence.

Maine came out strong, outshooting Brown 3-0 over the first 7:00 of the game, however the Bears found themselves on attack for most of the remainder of the period, thanks in part to back-to-back power-play chances, limiting the Black Bears to just two shots, both on a power-play chance late in the period, over the remaining 13:00. Brown finished the period holding a 10-5 advantage in shots.

The Bears had several quality scoring chances in the period, the first on the power-play with 8:23 left when freshman Matt Vokes (Auburn, MA) broke in on a one-on-one. However, Maine's Matt Lundin stripped Vokes of the puck just before he could get a shot off. Less than a minute later, Lundin left a big rebound on a shot off the stick of junior Sean Dersch (Edmonton, ALB), but the Maine defense cleared the puck away just in time. With 6:08 to go before the first intermission, sophomore Brian McNary's (Edmonton, ALB) shot from the left of the goal hit the near post and was sitting on the goal-line, but Lundin smothered it before it could trickle over the line. Just 44 seconds later, freshman Ryan Garbutt (Winnipeg, MAN) lit the lamp, but the referee had blown the play dead a split second before the light went on.

The Black Bears opened the second period with 50 seconds remaining on a tripping penalty to sophomore Jeff Prough (Farmington Hills, MI) and with 15 seconds left on the Maine power-play, senior Joe Bauer (Apple Valley, MN) and freshman Sean Muncy (Chesterfield, MO) skate in on a two-on-one rush. Bauer's shot was saved by Lundin, his former high school teammate.

However, after Maine went back on the attack, senior Paul Crosty (Edmonton, ALB) blocked a shot and hit Prough with an up-ice pass as Prough came out of the box. Prough broke in behind the Maine defense and gave Brown a 1-0 lead exactly 1:00 into the period when he fired the puck under Lundin's arm on his stick-side.

Brown had a 5:00 power-play 5:36 into the third, but failed to capitalize and at 11:04, 28 seconds after Maine had successfully killed the man-advantage, Rob Bellamy finally solved senior Kevin Kliman (Toronto, ONT), who had made 25 saves before allowing the goal. The goal came just after the Black Bears nearly tied it, but with Kliman out of position, Vokes made a heads-up play to clear the puck out of the zone, icing the puck. Maine won the ensuing face-off and beat Kliman with a low rebound.

The Black Bears took a 2-1 lead with 4:36 left in the game when John Hopson beat Kliman five-hole on a two-on-one break.

Brown pulled Kliman with 39 seconds left in the game for the extra skater, but the Black Bears held on for the win.

In his first start of the year, Kliman finished with 30 saves, one shy of his career high. The Bears are off for two weeks for the exam break, but return to action on Wednesday, December 21 when they face Sacred Heart in opening round action of the Providence Tournament. The puck drops at 4:00 p.m.